More goodies from Siggraph 2006. Morphovision is a project by Toshio Iwai. The combination of a spinning model of a house and some special lights give an illusion that is a strange experience. Something that looks like a true 3D projected image in front of your eyes. And, well – it is. Because the spinning model is a true model. A house made of wood and plastic. Problem is that the light fools your eyes into seeing strange things happening to the house… You have to see it yourself with your own eyes to really get the strange image.

However, for the people that wasn’t able to visit Siggraph this year I have made this little video to give an impression.

All the way trough Siggraph this year I have tried to keep a close eye on the companies and brains behind the stuff that I have seen. To be able to provide my readers, the people listening to my presentations and myself with links and relevant sources of more information.

But some images and video clips managed to get into my camera without any other info. This is one of them. I wanted to share it because this is the solution for the parents that refuse to give their son a set of drums because of all the noise.

These virtual drums, a pair of high quality headphones and you’re all set…

This might not look very impressive, but it is. By using lasers and all kinds of projection technologies we have seen different kinds of 3D images before, but all of them rely on something that reflect the light so that you can see the image.

Some of the most real looking and impressive versions of the holographic effects that you can see in movies like StarWars have been done using lasers and smoke in the room to reflect the image.

Image copyright Burton-jp.com

But what if you want a 3D image to appear in thin air? With nothing to reflect the light? Nobody has done that before using laser plasma this way.

That’s why the simple dots of light that you can see in this video are impressive. This is the Nipkow Disk of the 21st century. We’re on to something here. Before you know it Princess Leia will be right in your room praying Obi-Wan to help her.

I guess many of you have seen this video on YouTube already. An amazing piece of input device. It is on display here at Siggraph and I can’t say much more than WOW! After trying it I can confirm that it works just as well as it looks like in the video.

The guys behind it are setting up a company and hope to put it into production. Where can I buy shares?

I am of the opinion that the way we separate art from technology today is bad for creativity. And bad for engineering. And bad for problem solving. Here at Siggraph one of the great attractions each year is the art exhibition. Where art meets technology. Just like back in the good old days of guys like Leonardo da Vinci.

Tetsuaki Baba has made a system that turns the audience into drums. By using electro dermal activity and skin resistance he detect contact and gives the different participants different sounds.

It was truly fascinating to try out the system. You really feel like being a part of the music.

You find more information and some more videos over at Mr. Baba’s project page.